


Crashed.

by AuthorInDistress



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, I did my best with it basically, I wrote this because I liked the prompt, M/M, Tony!Whump, even if it's not overly graphic, even though I dislike the pairing, explicit because there's sexual content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 21:12:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/691488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorInDistress/pseuds/AuthorInDistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for this Avengerskink prompt: http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/15292.html?thread=32488380#t32488380</p><p>After a fundraiser, Tony and Pepper separate from everybody  else to have a little date night to themselves. But, halfway there, an unmarked police car stops them and asks that they step out the car.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crashed.

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said in the tags, I don't particularly like Pepper/Tony but I did like this prompt, so I figured I'd fill it, see how it went, and then post it on here :)

.

The roads were almost pitch black by the time they left the fundraiser together, but Tony still insists that Happy take the limo back himself, and that Pepper and he drive the Mustang the other way. 

“We have a date,” He’d says, his eyes already twinkling with their regular amusement and anticipation, and Pepper isn’t able to hold back her laughter as she hops into the passenger seat, “You wouldn’t want to be the Third wheel, now would you Hap?”

Happy, composed and resigned as usual, only smiles at him and shakes his head; taking the keys to the limo out of Tony’s hand and waving over his shoulder back at them as he left. Pepper remembers watching him walk away. She remembers regretting it with all her heart.

\------

“So, what do you think?” Tony asks her, half an hour down the road, “Restaurant-time, or night-time-beach-time?”

Pepper grins, letting her hair down from it’s complicated bun to ease the ache in her neck, and rolls around in her seat to face him, “Restaurant-time,” She answers, “Because then I can pay.” Tony groans lightly, giving her a look.

“Oh come on, we’re not still doing the 12%-”

She interrupts his whine before it can get into it’s full-swing, “No, not because of that, no,” Tony pauses, glancing at her sideways and he raises an eyebrow, “This date was my idea, so I’d like to pay. I’m earning more than most men nowadays anyway, so why not treat _you_ for a change?”

And this time, Tony grins back at her, shrugging, “Fine by me,” His eyes flicker up at the mirror as he speaks and he frowns slightly, but before Pepper can ask why, he gestures toward the glove compartment, “You can top yourself up too if you want, I’ve got spares from the photoshoot you made me have yesterday.”

It takes her a moment to understand what he’s talking about but when she does, she lets out a tiny giggle, the kind that she’s not had since her teenage years. Tony _giggles_ along with her, and she rolls her eyes at his imitation and reaches into the compartment for the make-up that must be inside.

But then - 

“The hell …?” Tony murmurs, making her look up, her hand still outstretched and she sees that he’s frowning at the mirror again, biting his lip. He notices her looking at him, and answers her unasked question: “That car’s been following us for two miles now, and he’s just popped a flashy-thingy up top. No idea why, though, because _really_. Why now?”

“Popped a what, up top?” Pepper asks with a frown of her own, glancing behind her to see the sleek black car just a few feet behind them, and the flashing blue light propped up on it’s roof, “Oh. A flashy-thingy,” She purses her lips at Tony’s giggle - a real one this time - and wipes it off immediately. “Pull over then.”

Tony scowls, “Why?” He stretches the word, glaring at the mirror and at the car behind, “We won’t get a table if we stop now, and I’m not exactly breaking any laws, so what’s the idiot’s problem.”

“Tony,” Pepper sighs, leaning over to indicate for him, “The sooner he does what he needs to, the sooner we can go. You don’t want him stopping us outside the restaurant do you?” Tony looks like he’s considering it, and Pepper knows she’s going to have to do some persuading. “Because if that happens, Tony, you know that the press will be all over you in minutes. And once they get pictures of you with the police, _I’ll_ have to make a statement as CEO and it’ll all just tedious and out of hand for the both of us, so-”

“Okay, _okay_ ,” Tony continues driving on for a while before finding an empty kerb on the side of the road, and pulls over, “His reasoning better be good then, or I’m cutting back on their tech.”

“The police don’t use Stark tech, Tony.” Pepper reminds him, glancing back again to see the car park a few feet behind them.

“Fine, I’ll cut something else then,” Pepper rolls her eyes for a second time at her boyfriends immaturity, and leans back in her seat when she hears two car doors click shut. She ignores the butterflies in her stomach, knowing that this isn’t the first time Tony’s been stopped by the police in his car, and that he can handle it all fine. He probably was speeding or something, without her noticing, and being a billionaire doesn’t exactly excuse that. 

The knock at the window startles her anyway, but she hides it and turns her head to see Tony press the button there to let it roll down.

“Can I help you, Officer?” Tony asks, mockingly polite and charming, and Pepper bites the inside of her cheek to stop her smiling, hoping that he doesn’t offend them too quickly. She really does want this date. “Or, Officer- _s_ …” Tony amends, looking past the man standing by the window toward the other leaning against the stump of a tree behind. 

“Mr Stark?” The man shines a torch in Tony’s face and he squints up at him, giving Pepper a bored look before nodding.

“Yep, that’s me, and if this is a fan-thing then can we do this later, I’m kind of busy -”

“We understand that, Sir,” The Officer interrupts him, and Pepper slides her hand over Tony’s when he begins to clench them. He relaxes but still glares up at the man standing over him, possibly giving him the Stark-perfected-obnoxious look, though she can’t see him properly to tell, “But we’ve had word from sources that someone has placed a bomb in your car when you were leaving your … party.”

Pepper’s heart jumps, not in panic, but in confusion. 

A bomb? 

A little extreme for a police scout to inform them, and shouldn’t there be more than just two police officers here to help?

She voices her thoughts in her crisp professional tone, but Tony just flashes her a smile in answer and shakes his head, “This kind of thing is common with me, Pep, you know that. Trust me, two’s more than enough,” Of course she knows that, she’s just never been in the car with him, when something like this has happened.

And wouldn’t a bomb have gone off already? The police had been following them for a while, it would have more sense to stop them earlier and with more urgency than just - 

“I’m going to have to ask you to step outside, while we search Mr Stark,” The man’s torch shines in Pepper’s eyes this time, and she shields them with her hand in annoyance but begins to clamber out all the same. But Tony stops her with a hand on her arm, obviously having had the same thoughts as her.

“I can do a quick check myself, thanks,” He says curtly, reaching into the compartment and pushing aside the make-up bag to find his phone. He flips it open, lets it whirr on, and then lets out a sound of protest when it’s taken from his hand. Pepper blinks sharply when it’s thrown toward the other Officer who catches it. “Okay,” Tony bristles, “It’s pretty, yeah, and you can get the latest model at your nearest store, but I kind of need that right now.”

Pepper feels another smile forming over her face, and she turns away to hide it, still slightly tipsy from the drink she’s had. But she can’t hide the amusement in her voice when she speaks, “Tony, come on. Just a quick check, and we can go. Like you said, this happens to you a lot and it’s probably a false alarm if even these Officers don’t think it’s urgent enough.”

Tony sighs, opens his mouth to complain, but he stops at the look on her face and instead opens his door with a scowl, bumping it into the Officer before he can move back, “Fine, but we’re taking your car while you check,” He grumbles, heading over toward the unmarked Police Car, but the Officer grabs his arm before he can get more than three steps away.

“I’m afraid not, Sir,” He says, oblivious to the way Tony now holds himself rigid. He doesn’t like people touching him like that, Pepper knows, and she moves forward to distract the Officer but Tony gets there first. He pulls his arm out of the man’s grip and glares at him.

“Why not?”

“The bomb may have been placed on your person, and we will need to check both you _and_ Miss Potts to ensure your safety.”

“Oh, come _on_.” Tony rolls his eyes and this time Pepper can’t hide her smile, “This is getting ridiculous.” 

It really is, and Pepper’s half convinced now that the Officer’s are only doing this to irritate Tony. A prank of Rhodey’s maybe, she wouldn’t put it past him, and he had been at the fundraiser. 

So, slightly convinced now, she takes some pleasure in being entertained by the result. 

“I’m willing to cooperate.” She says coolly, giving Tony a faux-disapproving look as she spreads her arms out at her sides. The Officer’s look surprised, which just feeds her assumption, and at Tony’s look, he’s probably thinking the same. Rhodey _has_ done something like this before, after all. Military men can order anyone around.

The Officer with Tony’s phone begins to pat at her arms, and she decides to warn him, just in case; “But, I will make it clear that, if this gets too thorough for my liking or if I find out that you are wasting our time purposefully, you’ll find a letter from Court in your home over the next few days.”

The Officer beside Tony gives her a tight smile in response and gestures toward his partner that he continue to search Pepper. Tony still mumbles under his breath, but follows he Pepper’s example.

Probably because he knows that if he whines some more, it’ll be him wasting their time and no one else, and it’ll be him to blame if they don’t get their date.

“Hope I don’t need to remind you who I am.” He says anyway, obviously wanting the last word, and he twitches when he’s turned to face the car, but spreads his arms out without anymore protest.

Pepper watches him carefully out of the corner of her eye, knowing that he’s probably a little uncomfortable with this right now, but he’s had this done many times before and the more uncomfortable he is, the more Rhodey will be punished. 

Pepper lets her amusement wash over her, used to being in the middle of these sorts of pranks, and she tells herself that it doesn’t matter that they’re in quite a remote and empty area right now, because she can see her phone easily and all it would take is a quick grab and - 

She hears Tony gasp, and the sound of it drives a knife through her chest, and drives any amusement out as her eyes dart back toward him quickly. He’s stiffened from something the Officer has done, and when she tries to work out which of his quirks has affected him this time, Tony _whimpers_ instead; his face flushed and just so shocked, and he begins to pull away in panic.

Only. Only, the Officer doesn’t let him go. He stays crouched by Tony’s thighs, his fingers running between them and over the slim trouser leg that covers it, still pretending to be searching for something, and he simply tightens his hold on them when Tony attempts to move them out of his grip.

“What the _hell_ are you -” Tony jerks when the fingers tighten again, and he whips his head over toward Pepper to check that the same thing isn’t happening to her, and suddenly, she finds that she can’t move. She freezes, just like Tony must have when the man had first - 

She feels herself grow cold from the inside, feels her half-drunken self melt away in the realisation of how stupid she has just been.

An unmarked car. She remembers, looking back at it quickly. Unmarked and following them all the way from the fundraiser. They’d known who it was in the car, even when the Paparazzi had followed Happy and not them, and a _bomb_? 

A bomb.

She’d fallen for that. She’d fallen for it, and they’d used something that Tony was used to so that he’d get out of the car. She’d thought it was a _joke_ -

“I think that’s enough, thank you.” She says icily, pushing away from the Officer who’d searched her, and her heart thuds in her throat when the other one looks up at her. “I’d like for you to step away from him now.” How she keeps her voice calm, is a mystery to even her, but Tony’s eyes are wide and shocked, and he’s not prepared for something like this.

Pepper has been - _Women_ are told this everyday of their lives, and while they mostly cannot stop it, they are taught how to be careful. Told how they should not go out alone at night, how they should not let men like this near them, and how they should make sure they’re in a safe and public place before they pull their car over.

Tony’s not been taught this, Tony’s not been warned, and though it can still happen to anyone, he’s likely never expected it to. 

 

“I _said_ ,” Pepper repeats, anger forcing her voice out, “Step away from him. Now.” 

Tony pulls away when the Officer steps back, stumbles against the boot of the car, but Pepper’s short moment of relief is over when the Officer only nods at the man behind her. When he doesn’t leave them alone and only continues to gesture.

“Get her.”

And she almost hits herself. How _stupid_ , she turned her back on him, and now there are hands pulling her arms behind her back and forcing her away from Tony and she’s screaming at them both, and Tony is screaming back.

“Let her go, let her go, if it’s me you want then--!” Pepper’s head hits the door frame of the other car, the one that had followed them, and she struggles as she’s shoved into the passenger seat, throws herself to the side when she’s buckled in and held there. 

In the window she can see Tony pushing against the first Officer, punching him and trying to get toward Pepper, but the door to the mustang is opened, and he’s shoved backward onto it’s seats. 

Pepper slams her hand across the face of the man sitting next to her, and for the first time since stopping them he speaks and he presses a gun to her temple, “I really don’t want to use this on you ma’am. But if you scream again, or if you hit me again, then I will.” Pepper’s heart won’t stop beating so fast, “The boss doesn’t want you, so it won’t matter,” Pepper turns away, pressing her lips together and hopes against anything that matters that she won’t cry, “He doesn’t like women, anyway.”

“Oh, _God_ ,” She squeezes her eyes shut, feeling the cold metal of the gun against her forehead like something out of a nightmare, but they fly open again when she hears Tony cry out, and she finds him again through the window. Tony’s legs are raised, bent at the knees and in the air, and his feet stick out of the half-open door; twitching and kicking as he still struggles.

She can see the dark shadow of the Officer on top of him, can see his elbow jabbing into the glass beside him as he thrusts his fingers into - _Oh, God_ \- Pepper can’t breathe properly.

Tony’s hand presses against the back window, and he rolls over, kicking out and Pepper can see him clearly now, can see his eyes staring at her; filled with something she’s never seen before.

Filled with the sort of fear she didn’t think him capable of feeling. Not the kind he has when he wakes from his regular nightmares, but a more raw fear. The fear of having that one _something_ that is only in his right to give, being taken away from him. Without his permission. 

And Pepper can’t do anything to help!

Tony’s eyes slide toward the second Officer and his eyes widen even more when he sees the gun. He shakes his head, pressing his other hand against the window as he mouths something to her, but she can’t see what he’s trying to say, and the next thing she knows is that Tony is being pulled down by his legs and thrown onto his back against the passenger door. 

Pepper lunges forward, her own hand pressed to the window and the gun moves with her but still doesn’t shoot. “Please,” She says, turning back to look at the Officer and she can see his name-badge now in the light of the car, “Please … Martin,” She tries to edge toward her clearer head, her negotiating side. “Listen to me, if you let us go now then you can have my word - I will swear to you that no tabloid and no lawyer will ever hear of this. You’ll have protection, but only if you let us both go right now.”

At the sound of his first name, there’s a flash of panic in the man’s eyes, and Pepper feels like she’s actually gotten through to him. But then, the panic merges into anger and he grabs her by the hair, tugging her back and presses a hand over her mouth.

“You won’t tell anyone anyway, lady,” He growls into her ear, and for some reason all she can focus on is _lady_ , “Stark won’t let you if you try, trust me, we know the rich kind, and we definitely know _his_ kind.”

 _His kind_? What kind was that supposed to be? The kind that didn’t want to be raped, because in that case, that was practically the whole world. 

Pepper doesn’t reply, can’t reply, and Martin’s fingers dig into her cheeks, but all she can hear anyway is the sound of Tony crying out and moaning in the car just in front of her. She can’t look, she knows what she’ll see, but the thuds and creaks of the car as it moves under them both gives her an image that doesn’t seem to want to leave her mind anyway.

This isn’t how this night was meant to go. They were supposed to eat at a restaurant, to share their dessert on silver forks, and then share their bed in Tony’s room when they got back. When every reporter was finally off-duty and in their own homes 

But _this_ , what was happening now - 

Her eyes jerk up when she hears Tony actually _scream_ now, and her heart nearly stops, but then, at the sound of the other Officer, the _rapist_ , shouting in pain, she feels a savage sense of satisfaction.

Tony’s hurt him then. Tony’s not stopped fighting back, as he always tries to.  
She almost begins to struggle again herself, when the feeling of satisfaction disappears when she sees the man’s hand rise in the reflection of the window, only to come swinging back down. 

One of Tony’s legs spasms and then flops uselessly. Pepper stares, knowing that he’d likely just been backhanded or punched. She feels tears, hot and wet down her face, because she’s just sitting here and Tony is in front of her, in pain, and scared, and used, and - and Pepper can't _do_ anything!

Martin leans forward beside her, dragging her by her hair with him, and he lights a cigar with his other hand, so relaxed in listening to the sound of Tony being taken like this.

So casual in it all, that it makes Pepper physically feel sick, so when he rolls down his window to hear all the sounds Tony can’t stop himself from making all the more clearer; she can’t hold back her anger anymore.

Lifting the arm that’s not trapped between them, she uses it to knock the man’s nose to one side. A second blow and she hears it crunch and he lets out a howl, covering it with the hand that now no longer covers her mouth. 

She straightens before he can move, and when he drops the gun to cup his bleeding nose, she grabs it first and doesn’t hesitate to use it. Doesn’t hesitate to shoot him in the leg.

The gun’s been smothered already, with one of those spongy things that she doesn’t know the names of and doesn’t care to know of anyway, but there’s a flash at the shot all the same. 

She smothers Martin’s shout with both her arms, and quickly checks that the other Officer hadn’t heard. Martin slumps under her hands, unconscious already from his pain, but she knocks him on the head with the gun just in case.

Opening the door without the keys isn’t easy, so she aims and shoots the handle instead, making sure there’s no metal to rebound it back toward her. She’s learned from Tony, it seems.

Outside, she can hear it all easier and her heart literally _aches_ when she can now hear that Tony isn’t just moaning, he’s pleading as well.

“Please … please, I can’t - stop it, just stop ...”

Pepper creeps past them, freezing constantly whenever her feet knock over gravel or when her heels hit the wheel of the Mustang, but Tony seems to have taken all of the Officer’s attention because he doesn’t even look up. Not even when she’s standing right over him. 

She pulls the door open fully, and her hands begin shake when she can now see what she’d been hearing. Tony isn’t looking at her, his head is resting on the rim of the wheel, and his face is pinched with pain. His legs are spread and held up by the Officer’s hands, and the trousers are ripped, ruined and torn and dumped on the floor by her feet. 

The Officer hasn’t bothered to undress fully, has just pulled his trousers down as far as he needs, and he’s grunting and thrusting into Tony.

Into _her_ Tony, like he can just do something like that. Tony moves with every thrust, cries out and covers his face with his hands as he continues to plead, but Pepper now only has eyes for the man doing this to him.

He isn’t even looking around in case someone comes, as though he’s completely sure that no one will. Sure that he will get away with this because Pepper’s taken care of, and no one comes down this road, and he’s a police Officer anyway so - 

And that’s all it takes for Pepper. For her to lift her shaking hands, to grip them around the gun tight, and to shoot.

Blood splatters everywhere.

Tony lets out a strange noise of shock at it all, and then a pitiful and almost heart wrenching moan when the Officer slowly slides backward _out of him_ to slump onto the ground. 

Pepper stands over him, and points her gun down when he still twitches. She shoots him again. 

Tony stirs on the seats, when she shoots again, and he curls in on himself and stares at her, but she can’t look at him. Not now. 

She feels the gun clicking in her hands and realises that it’s out, but she’s still breathing heavily and all she can hear is the rushing in her ears.

She jumps when she feels another’s hands on her own. She jerks back when Tony’s fingers take the gun from her and she stares as they drop it carelessly to the floor. Tony stares at her back, over the seats and over the body of the man who’d just - 

“I’m sorry,” She whispers, and Tony frowns at her. His lip is bleeding, “I should never have - I know about these sorts of people and I should have known better than to -”

“Pepper,” She chokes back a sob when he speaks, because God he sounds so hurt, but Tony continues over her, wincing as he shuffles closer to place a hand on her shoulder, “Shut up.”

And she does.

She leans forward and pulls him into her arms, hugs him tight, and when Tony can’t look away from the body of the Officer, when he can’t stop shaking and when he croaks: “Pep, you _killed_ him.” She kisses him.

She only stops when he stiffens against her, because of course he’s just been - 

She looks away quickly, thinking on the next logical step and she reaches inside for her phone - the phone that she should have used when she’d first seen that car driving behind them. 

She shut the door behind her when she clambers back inside, still holding onto Tony, and there’s a thud outside when the dead Officer falls backward.

Happy is on speed-dial, and Pepper doesn’t need to explain anything to him, just needs to tell him that there was a situation. She keeps the conversation short and curt, knowing that she’ll apologize if need be later on, because Tony is her priority right now. Because Tony was just raped, literally one minute ago, and she doesn’t think a night can get any more surreal than this.

Tony shakes his head at her when she asks if he’s okay, and she nods because of course he’s not, and she kisses the top of his head when he continues to repeat himself: “I’m not okay, I’m not …”

They sit in silence for a while, after Pepper shushes Tony and tries to distract him with questions about injuries. 

Are you bleeding? A little. Where? Where do you think. Is there pain? Yes. The same area? Pepper, please stop … 

“I thought -” Tony starts, after almost fifteen minutes of silence, and his voice is too quiet for Pepper’s liking, “I thought he was going to do it to you Pep.” And, no, God don’t do this.

“Tony, don’t …”

“I thought - I thought they were going to tie me up instead, like they do in all those movies and stuff, and make me watch, or - or something. So I panicked, because I couldn’t let that happen to you, I _couldn’t_ -” He looks up at her, and despite what he’s saying, despite what he must be feeling, his face is utterly blank. “This was better.” He says, like that makes it all better all around. “They didn’t do it to you, so this was better.”

There would be a time for disagreements. Would be a time for anger and arguments, but for now. For now, Pepper says nothing.

She doesn’t have an answer for him, doesn’t have anything to give him, and she just chooses to tighten her hold on him instead.

And when his shaking shoulders lead to stifled sobs and to curled fingers in her blouse, she whispers short promises into his hair.

“It’s okay, Tony, alright. I’ll make it okay, for you, I promise.” Tony continues to shake, whether from shock or … from something else, she doesn’t know, and Pepper’s eyes darken as she stares over him and into the rearview mirror; watching as Martin begins to come to in the car behind them.

 _Just watch me_.

.

**Author's Note:**

> Just to say, when Pepper talks about 'preparing' and being 'warned' I don't mean, in any kind of way, that someone can prepare themselves for rape or can take warnings and use them to stop it happening. Because, yes, it's not anyone but the rapist's fault it happens, but the point I have her make is that women are _told_ to be careful a lot more than men are about this topic. So, following on from the bonus in the prompt, I was trying to make her seemingly blame herself for this by not using these warnings to save Tony.


End file.
